Former city imam is cleared of sexually assaulting children

A FORMER Swansea imam has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting children.

Noor Alam faced a total of 14 counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13 and of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, but was acquitted of all charges by a jury at Swansea Crown Court yesterday.

The 34-year-old, a Burmese Rohingya asylum-seeker who came to the UK in 2010, wept in the dock as the verdicts were delivered.

Mr Alam, of no fixed address, was accused of assaults ranging from hugging and touching to performing sex acts.

His week-long trial saw recorded video interviews with children in which they alleged he had given them sweets and chips as “bribes” in order to get access to them.

The defendant also took to the stand to give evidence in his defence.

Speaking through a Bengali Sylheti interpreter, he denied the alleged incidents had ever taken place.

It was the defence case that the allegations against him had been fabricated by the complainants.

The members of the jury were told it was not a case involving “accidental or mistaken contact” between the parties or of something being “misinterpreted”.

They had to decide whether the incidents had happened as alleged, or whether they had never happened at all.

Stephen Thomas, for Mr Alam, in his closing address to the jury, said that if they had any doubts at all they must acquit him.

He was acquitted of all charges.